Jan 19, 2014

Wonders of Google Map - Taiwan Trip 2014

These photos of Resort One Hotel Jiaoxi Yilan at No.159, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County 262, Taiwan where I booked in with my tour group friends for one night on 31 December, 2013.

Thanks to the courtesy of Google Map which I have discovered an unusual, unorthodox "virtual ways" to revive memories of the places I visited during my Taiwan
Trip 2014. Incredible!

I was excited like a dog with two tails to share this "memory aids" discovery on Google Map. Two weeks after returning home from Taiwan to sort and organise the photos I have taken to blog by topics, I was in a daze. I know very little about the geography of Taiwan and the street names of places I visited
were missed out and could not remember.

With some homework to research with the help of Googles search and photos of
Googles Map, I am pleased to return to Taiwan without travelling physically. Here's my "virtual journey" experiments to share with my friends on this blog.

I know very well that I wouldn't have a repeat visit to Taiwan in the foreseeable future for another opportunity. Whatever limited time I have during the trip, I would not waste it to educate myself and learn the places I could only visit once in a lifetime.

While my room-mate was still sleeping and not to awake him until it was breakfast time in the hotel at 9:00 am, I quietly sneaked out the hotel room to roam the little streets of Taiwan with my camera, to capture in my "mind's eyes" of places I have never seen before.

Here's some fun which you guys could match and juxtapose the two sets of photos on this blog and please let me know whether you recognise them as the same places. For your convenience and some tips, I will follow the same routes I had walked
from the hotel on New Year's Day on lst January, 2014 and then followed by the Google Map photos at an earlier time. Please note that there may be some changes to the street scenes on the Google Map.

Please note that a round direction sign on the top left of the photos are shared from Google Map acknowledgement and thanks. Photos with date and time stamped on the bottom right of the photos were taken by me to share on this blog.

A pose with courtesy of the proprietor of the laundry shop

The friendly Taiwanese proprietor told me that the laundry shop was inherited from his father over 8 decades ago and continued the business for many years.

I then told him that I am a Singaporean who blogged about the laundry service in Singapore here .

The morning markets along the road

Papaya plants for sale ... with photo to display and prove the result

Fresh fishes at the market, not frozen fishes in supermarkets

Treat for invitation and inspect the goodies

Edible vegetables and plants are grown everywhere to use as food

This plot of land for planting of rice was located outside a supermarket indiscriminately.

Photos taken at Google Map to match and identify the above photos taken on New Year Day on 1/1/2014:

This is an unmistakable landmark of this church

The entrance to the little street of Taiwan with red roof tiles at the corner

Photo taken from the exit of the lane, with the "bah chang" stall

Google Map photo of the laudry shop which I visited

The laundry shop at Tangwei Street off Section 2, Zhongshen Road, Jiaoxi Township in Taiwan is an evidence of the same street on my morning walk to explore personally found on Google Map.

Its really fun to discover, research and learn more to the places I missed two weeks ago. Please try some on your next trip overseas anywhere in the world which Google Map had added to the website. Its amazing!

Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic
views from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched
on May 25, 2007, in several cities in the United States, and has since
expanded to include cities and rural areas worldwide.

When Google Maps first rolled out the Street View feature in 2007, its collection of images was restricted to destinations within the United States, and mostly urban ones. Since Street View went international in 2008, its portfolio has expanded to include digital postcards of the suburbs, museums, tourist attractions, and natural landmarks in 48 regions and counting. Now anyone with an Internet connection is just a few clicks away from a panoramic view of their dream vacation.

Google’s new service "Street View" is good for consumers and business advertising in countries which users privacy are permitted and the on-line commercial directory services not to be abused.

Tthe Google Street Camera Capture Vans won't drive up a private drive,
but if the building is on or near a public street then it is fair game.
Google maps is also supposed to automatically obscure (blur) text on
buildings, license plates, peoples faces, etc, but even without those
tidbits of data, there is still a lot of useful information that is
provided via Street View.

2014 is STB’s 50th anniversary and we are celebrating Tourism’s 50 years of transformation!

The objectives of this campaign are to: •Celebrate 50 years of Singapore Tourism•Celebrate 50 years of STB’s history•Drive the tourism narrative through engagement with the tourism industry stakeholders and Singaporeans

As part of the launch, we are working with Straits Times to develop an advertorial mapping out the transformative journey of some of the key attractions/events in Singapore, e.g. Merlion @ Old Esplanade Park, Van Cleef Aquarium, Swing Singapore and Gluttons Square in Orchard Road.

The media story will juxtapose the old and new to illustrate the transformative journey of the attraction and the area surrounding the attractions. For Gluttons Sq, it will be related to the transformative story of Orchard Rd. I came across your blog and it was interesting to read your personal experiences and chronicles of the change in Orchard Rd. We would like to check if you would be agreeable to be one of the interviewees for this advertorial and if so, we will share your contact with ST and the appointed journalist will get in touch with you.